Meri Lebenzon

Meri Lebenzon was a Soviet and Russian pianist and teacher. She was born on September 30, 1931, in Odessa and died on November 9, 2020, in Novosibirsk. She was honored as a Merited Artist of the Russian Federation in 1992.

She was born into a family of teachers: her father was a mathematics teacher, and her mother taught primary school and loved music deeply, having taught herself to sing from notation. Lebenzon began studying piano at the age of four. She studied at the Stolyarsky Music School in the class of B. M. Reyngbald, and also studied composition with N. N. Vilinsky. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, she was evacuated with her mother and sister to Kokand, where she continued her musical studies.

In 1943 she was invited to the Central Music School attached to the Moscow Conservatory. She moved with her family to Moscow and began studying in the class of A. B. Goldenweiser. She later graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1954, also in Goldenweiser's class.

After graduating from the conservatory, Lebenzon taught and gave concerts in Severodvinsk from 1954 to 1956. She then worked in Arkhangelsk from 1956 to 1961 as a teacher at a music college and as a soloist of the philharmonic. In 1961 she moved to Novosibirsk and began teaching at the Novosibirsk Conservatory. From 1969 to 1983 she headed the special piano department, and from 1992 she was a professor in the department.

She performed in solo, symphonic, and chamber ensemble concerts in various cities of Russia, Germany, and Italy. She appeared with the Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra, including under the direction of A. M. Katz, and made recordings. A special place in her repertoire was occupied by works by Chopin, Schumann, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff.

Lebenzon trained more than 140 students. Among her graduates were prize-winners and diploma recipients of prestigious international competitions, music teachers, and concert pianists. She served on the juries of many competitions in Russia and other countries, regularly gave master classes for teachers at children's music schools, and wrote methodological works on musical interpretation.

Among her distinctions were the title Merited Artist of the Russian Federation, awarded on August 27, 1992, for services in the field of musical art; the Golden Apollo Prize of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Tchaikovsky Foundation for the Development of National Musical Art in 2000; and the distinction For Services to Novosibirsk Region, awarded on October 14, 2015, for outstanding achievements contributing to the development of Novosibirsk Region.

She was buried at Zaeltsovskoye Cemetery in Novosibirsk.

Connections

This figure has 1 connection in the Music Lineage catalog.